How To Turn Egg Yolks Into The Ultimate Flavor Bomb

Lisa Steele, who hosts the American Public Television and CreateTV series "Welcome to My Farm," describes herself as a fifth-generation chicken keeper, so she knows a thing or two about eggs. Her blog is called Fresh Eggs Daily and it provides recipes as well as chicken-keeping tips. During a recent conversation with The Takeout, Steele offered a recipe which includes something a little unusual: salt-cured egg yolks.

"Salt curing is an old-timer's method in which you bury egg yolks in a salt and sugar mixture then bake them at a low heat to dry them out," Steele told The Takeout. You can vary the amount of time they sit to alter the flavor. One day results in a jammy yolk while five days will turn the yolk nice and hard. Steele pointed out the method is safe since salt prevents harmful bacteria from forming while sugar promotes the growth of beneficial bacteria. As for the results, she described the cured yolks as having "a completely different and unique taste and texture... fairly rubbery, very concentrated, and very salty." She admitted that salt-cured yolks may be a bit of an acquired taste, but said they pack a powerful flavor punch.

To salt cure a dozen egg yolks, Lisa Steele says you'll need three cups of kosher salt and three cups of granulated sugar. First mix the salt and sugar together, then pour half of the mixture into a 9 x 13-inch pan (Steele recommends glass) to a depth of at least half an inch. Using a tablespoon, make 12 evenly-spaced depressions in the salt-sugar "sand" then add a raw yolk to each one. Don't make the mistake of cracking the eggs directly into the pan. Separate each egg first and reserve the whites in individual portions (a muffin pan will work for this). That way you can freeze them for later projects such baking a batch of pignoli cookies or making the molded dessert called hexenschnee (witches' snow).

Once the yolks are in place, bury them in the rest of the salt-sugar mixture then cover the pan with plastic wrap. Put the pan in the fridge and let it sit for one to five days, depending on how hard you want the finished product to be. When the time is up, remove the yolks from the pan and brush off as many salt crumbs as you can before soaking away the rest in a bowl of cool water. (You may need to rub them off with your fingers.) Once the yolks are clean, pat them dry with a paper towel, place them on a greased wire rack above a baking sheet, and cook them for two hours in an oven preheated to 175 degrees Fahrenheit. Let the yolks cool at room temperature, then stick them in the fridge.

According to Lisa Steele, one of the most common ways to use salt-cured yolks is as a kind of parmesan cheese replacement. She said some people even feel they taste like cheese and will grate them over eggs, salads, and pasta dishes. The soft-cooked ones are especially great for adding to soups or sauces since not only do they provide plenty of flavor, they also help liquids to emulsify. Steele also recommends using the soft ones to top ramen bowls, although she pointed out the taste and texture are "nothing like a traditionally soft-boiled egg."

Salted egg yolks are a common ingredient in Chinese cooking where they're used in mooncakes, the custard buns known as lau sa bau, and the flaky pastry puffs called dan huang su. In Malaysia they're cooked with curry leaves, chiles, and sugar to make a sauce that gets poured over everything from burgers to croissants.

Whatever you choose to do with your salt-cured egg yolks, you'll have plenty of time to use them. While salt-curing can, in theory, make egg yolks shelf-stable, Steele highly advises refrigerating them for safety's sake. She says they can last for up to a month, but some Redditors have reported their salt-cured yolks remained edible (and quite tasty) for eight months to a year.